But our research also found that online dating, however painful and time-consuming, often does produce the intended result if you use it well—and persevere.

And we found that the free sites generally did marginally better than the paid ones, presumably because they offer a better value.

They gave online dating sites the lowest satisfaction scores Consumer Reports has ever seen for services rendered—lower even than for tech-support providers, notoriously poor performers in our ratings. Well, finding a mate can be arduous and exhausting.